I DISTINCTLY RECALL marching in the 1969 Memorial Day Parade in
Arlington Heights, IL. I had a crew-cut hairstyle, and I was proudly
marching with 50 other boys from Boy Scout Troop 159, all of us wearing
our green uniforms and shined shoes. If you are under the age of 33, you
may not comprehend the significance of having a short, military-type
haircut and wearing a green uniform in public at anytime during the
Vietnam War. It just wasn't cool to look like you were part of the
establishment or to resemble a soldier.

After a while I learned to take pride in my appearance and ignore
the ridicule, although I still resisted wearing the uniform in public
and did everything I could to get out of it. I had one problem with
getting out of wearing the uniform and that was the scoutmaster-he was
also my father. " You should set the example, " he would tell
me. "Be better than the rest. nat's the matter, aren't
you proud of that uniform? Aren't you proud of all of your awards
and badges?"

I was proud and I did set the example, but that did little to
console me as I mentally prepared myself to face the name calling,
disgusted looks, and laughter. I learned how to march, salute, obey orders, and lead others. I was different, and I represented what a lot
of the population resented.

I am not unhappy with what happened during my childhood, nor am I
unhappy with the lessons I learned about human behavior and life. The
experiences I had left an imprint on my psyche. I still don't like
uniforms.

I don't like security personnel in uniforms either. In every
security assignment I have had I've taken the security personnel
out of uniform. Setting aside a debate over which is better, uniforms or
nonuniforms, I discovered during the last nine years that the security
personnel who have worked for me are very much like the Boy Scouts. They
don't like to wear their uniforms in public. They'll go home
and change clothes before going to the store even if it's out of
their way. They take advantage of any chance to avoid wearing the
uniform.

Uniformed security personnel are often stereotyped by the public as
being uneducated, incapable of getting a better job, and capable only of
logging people and vehicles in and out. The stereotypes are not fair and
are almost always incorrect. Forcing security personnel to wear uniforms
never seemed very productive to me.

On four occasions I changed the dress code from uniforms to
conservative business attire. I required security personnel to dress in
the same manner as the management and supervisory personnel.

I achieved the same results each time. Although there were
dissenting opinions, the majority of the comments were positive, both
from security personnel and from other employees. Attitudes from the
public improved as well. Vendors talking to a security guard wearing a
shirt and tie felt like they were talking to someone in authority and
more readily accepted instructions or the unpopular answer of
"no" from the guard than they would from a uniformed officer.

I also noticed a drop in the turnover rate of contract security
personnel. Since there had been no change in wages or benefits, some of
the reduced turnover rate had to be attributed to the fact that guards
were wearing business attire, not uniforms.

In my most recent job, an employee wrote a memo to the general
manager to protest the fact that security personnel were no longer in
uniform. The writer said the guards should be required to wear uniforms
because they were different from the rest of the employees. The writer
continued that he or she had observed several new faces among the
security staff. It was therefore obvious to me that the person did not
have any trouble identifying them as members of the security staff,
although the writer specifically complained that he or she could not
determine if a person was a security guard from a distance.

The general manager asked my opinion concerning the comments. I
said security department employees were not different from other
employees. They have the same rights and benefits as other employees.
They participate in the company's quality plan and make the same
commitment to providing quality services.

I also told him that I could not think of a business reason why an
employee needed to be able to tell from a distance that another employee
was a security guard. The suspicious side of me could think of several
illegitimate reasons. If there is a legitimate reason, the writer
didn't share it with me.

Safety and security personnel aren't there simply to satisfy
local city and state reporting requirements or because other big
companies have them. A company's management team has to believe
that safety and security functions contribute to the bottom line and
play a part in the overall business plan.

My general manager agreed and said he knew how to respond to the
complaining party.

This topic stimulates great debate. Some managers insist security
personnel belong in uniform, and that's that. If it works for you
and it isn't broken, don't fix it. The environment at the
facilities where I have worked needed some fine-tuning, and you already
know I don't like uniforms-although I still wear a Boy Scout
uniform quite often in my role as scoutmaster. If you disagree with my
point of view, maybe you should talk to my father. I'm sure
you'd get along quite well. About the Author . . . David R.
Stratton, CPP, is the supervisor of security and office services for the
Micro-Rel division of Medtronic Inc. He is a member of ASIS.

COPYRIGHT 1991 American Society for Industrial Security
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.